Blog

Congratulations to Sarah Elbasheer whose painting was selected for exhibition in the 2016 Biennial Southeastern Regional High School Artists Competition at Birmingham-Southern College. This visual arts competition is hosted by the Art & Art History Department and Admissions Office, and it recognizes talented rising artists in the Southeastern United States. Her art piece will be displayed from January 10th through January 28th. Sarah is a 10th-grader at American Youth Academy (AYA).

Shamaa Siddiqui is another local high school student who has great potential as an artist, masha'Allah. Shamaa is a Senior at Tampa Bay Technical School; she is enrolled in the Health Sciences program.

Congratulations to Awwab Azam on publishing his first book. Awwab wrote the book during the summer between 1st- and 2nd-grade as a project in Ahlul Qur'an. His book, The Tree Story, is available for purchase on Amazon.com. Awwab is a 4th-grader at Bayaan Academy Homeschool Co-Op.

May Allah protect and guide all of our youth and bless them with all that is good is this life and the next.

On behalf of the ISONET Youth Group, I would like to thank each and every single person who volunteered for, attended, and/or funded our 3rd Annual Family Fun Day. May Allah(SWT) reward all who helped make the event a success. Without all of your hard work, dedication, and the will of Allah(swt), none of this would have been possible. I definitely look forward to having many more events such as the Fun Day in the future.

It was an honor to help organize an event to give back not only to our beloved community, but also to the Syrian refugees. In sha' Allah, through Islamic Relief USA, we will be able to donate about $6,000.00 to our brothers and sisters in Islam! Takbeer!

In this day and age, while everything seems to be falling apart, it is essential that we, as an ummah, stick together, and that's exactly what this event was all about. The Family Fun Day didn't just signify a youth event, it served as a way for us to proudly continue practicing Islam in America, having no fear of whatever the media or anti-Islam protesters chose to portray as our ideals.

We have every right to practice our deen, and it was truly inspiring to see Muslims from all across the world come together.

Alhamdulillah, the Muslim Girl Scouts this year are off to a great start!

As a multi-level troop from ages 5 - 13, we have, masha'Allah, 43 girls that are learning the Girl Scout Law in accordance with the teachings of Islam. We begin each meeting with the Fatiha and go on with the Girl Scout traditions. The girls are learning new skills and are appreciating the bond they share with one another. They did research, gave speeches about the childhood of some women in our history (Khadijah bint Khawaylid, Aisha bint Abu Bakr, Maryam bint Imran, Helen Keller, Harriet Tubman, Sally Ride, Malala Yousefzai, etc), and talked about their accomplishments.

They learned about Hajj: Its history, its purpose, the do's and the don'ts, and the rituals from a wonderful presentation by our guest speaker that day, Sr. Magda. Then, the girls had to tie in the Girl Scout Law by discussing how Muslims practice it when performing Hajj. One Girl Scout said that Muslims are "using resources wisely by not wasting water while performing wudu, because that is zam zam water, and it is special".

For our Eid party, we invited a non-Muslim Girl Scout Troop because they were interested in Islam and our holidays. We had a "Hajj simulation," where the girls performed the rituals of Hajj and were able to earn the Hajj patch to put on their vests. We had craft stations where the girls made dhikr beads, wrote their names in Arabic and used glitter to make them stand out, made lanterns and even put on Henna. The non-Muslim Girl Scout Troop loved learning about Islam, Hajj, and how we celebrate Eid.

Insha'Allah, we hope to do more with the community this year, and we are very excited to see the ideas that the girls will come up with to better our community.